Department for Business and Trade

Business: Equality

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking (1) to addressthe underrepresentation of women, and (2) to increase diversity, in top corporate leadership roles.

Lord Johnson of Lainston: This Government is committed to diversifying representation up to, and including, top corporate leadership roles. Such as announcing increases in childcare provision and extending flexible working to all, we have backed a number of leadership-specific Reviews, including the FTSE Women Leaders Review.The latest reporting shows that the FTSE350 now has 40.2% women on boards, and 33.5% women in key senior leadership roles – marked progress from when the Review began in 2011 when there were only 9% women on boards in the FTSE 250 and 12% in the FTSE 100.

Department of Health and Social Care

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Lord Birt: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byBaroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 December2023 (HL858), whether they have reviewed the account by Dame Kate Bingham in The Long Shot of her experience of government and other supervision whilst she was Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the framework of project supervision in respect of the work of that Taskforce.

Lord Markham: No assessment has been made of The Long Shot. The Government published A review of the Vaccine Taskforce on GOV.UK in an online-only format on 29 August 2023. The review draws out learning that can be applied to future Government programmes, both in emergency circumstances, and to business-as-usual activity.

Cancer: Disadvantaged

Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent research conducted by Imperial College London entitledMortality from leading cancers in districts of England from 2002 to 2019: a population-based, spatiotemporal study, published in The Lancet Oncology on 11 December, which found that the risk of dying from cancer in poorer areas of England is more than 70 per cent higher than in wealthier areas; and what is the comparison between England and Northern Ireland.

Lord Markham: Reducing inequalities and variation in cancer waiting times and treatment is a priority for the Government. Increasing early cancer diagnosis is a key contributor to reducing cancer health inequalities and is one of the five clinical areas of focus in NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach to reducing health inequalities. Efforts are focused on diagnosing 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028 as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.To support this, NHS England introduced the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) which sets a target of maximum 28 day wait from urgent suspected general practitioner or screening referral to patients being told they have cancer, or that cancer is ruled out. The FDS also intends to reduce unwarranted variation in England by understanding how long it is taking people to receive a diagnosis or ‘all clear’ for cancer.On 24 January 2023, the Government announced that it will publish a Major Conditions Strategy to consider the six conditions, including cancer, that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England, including cancer.  The Major Conditions Strategy will apply a geographical lens to each condition to address regional disparities in health outcomes, supporting the levelling up mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy by 2030.As health is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland, the Government has not made any comparison between Northern Ireland and England.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Agriculture: Carbon Emissions

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assist farmers transitioning towards net zero; and what steps, if any, theyare taking to (1) support carbon auditing on farms, (2) standardise carbon calculators, and (3) invest in water management infrastructure.

Lord Benyon: We are taking a range of measures to support farmers’ transition to net zero. We are investing in a range of actions through farming schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery. Our schemes will help farmers deliver environmental outcomes on the land they manage while helping their businesses become more productive and sustainable. We will also pay farmers for improvements to animal health and welfare, as those improvements in turn can support lower emissions and improve productivity. We will also support market-led approaches such as improved productivity and use of precision techniques. Robust and accurate carbon audits which are based on business-level data can be valuable in benchmarking performance and help farm businesses plan and action decarbonising measures and enhance management of negative emissions. To help farmers confidently understand the emissions on their land and take advantage of the new financial opportunities this will unlock, we are committed to developing a harmonised approach to measuring carbon on farms. We are also considering how we can best support the implementation of carbon audits through a controlled expansion of the Defra Farming and Countryside Programme sustainable farming advice offer. We recognise the challenges in improving the robustness and consistency of carbon auditing tools. Defra is currently funding a 'Harmonisation of Carbon Accounting Tools for Agriculture' project to assess the level of divergence between a number of market leading carbon calculators, to understand the causes of this divergence and how it impacts tool users and consider recommendations for harmonisation. Defra aims to publish the full research report in 2024. Building on this research and working with existing tool providers, Defra aims to support carbon tool providers to harmonise their underlying methodologies so that outputs are consistent and comparable, and their ability to serve different customer needs is maintained. Defra is also working to provide greater access to the calculations and the models developed as part of the UK’s Agricultural Inventory of Ammonia and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions to interested third parties. This will support longer term alignment between the UK’s national GHG accounts and primary data gathered from farms The Government and the Environment Agency also support the agricultural sector with the Water Management Grant, under the Farming Transformation Fund, for the construction of new on-farm reservoirs and the adoption of best practice irrigation application equipment to help ensure farmers have access to water when they need it most. Through the first round of the grant, launched in November 2021, we are forecast to create an additional 4.7million cubic meters of reservoir storage. The total investment in reservoirs and irrigation equipment is predicted to be £7.4 million. Round 2 of the grant was launched in April 2023 with a total budget of £10 million.

Department for Education

Care Leavers: Housing

Lord Watson of Invergowrie: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the provision of safe and suitable housing for care leavers and thereby reduce the risk of care leavers becoming homeless.

Baroness Barran: Helping care leavers to make a successful transition from care to independence is a priority for this government. Care leavers face barriers to securing and maintaining affordable housing and this is why we are committed to undertake actions within Mission 5 of the Care Review implementation plan to ensure an increase in the number of care leavers in safe, suitable accommodation and a reduction in care leaver homelessness by 2027. This includes bringing forward legislation, when parliamentary time allows, for Staying Put to support young people up to age 23 and for Staying Close to be a national entitlement, recognising that young people in the general population are leaving home at older ages. The department will also bring forward legislation to remove the local connection requirement for care leavers seeking access to social housing at the next available opportunity.The department has previously provided £11.3 million in targeted funding to local authorities in England as part of the cross-government Rough Sleeping Strategy. An additional £3 million is being provided this year to deliver extra support for care leavers at highest risk of rough sleeping.To support care leavers in the current spending review period (2022/2025), the department is providing £99.8 million to local authorities to increase the number of care leavers that stay living with their foster families in a family home up to the age of 21 through the ‘Staying Put’ programme. The department is also providing £53 million to increase the number of young people leaving residential care who receive practical help with move-on accommodation, including ongoing support from a keyworker, through the ‘Staying Close’ programme.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

High Rise Flats: Electrical Safety

Lord Rooker: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers fromBaroness Scott of Bybrook on 26 June (HL8412, HL8413 and HL8414), when they expect the Building Safety Regulator will undertake the cost benefit analysis of making regular inspections and testing of electrical installations in relevant buildings.

Baroness Penn: Under Section 21 of the Building Safety Act, the Building Safety Regulator must carry out a cost-benefit analysis of making regular inspections of, and testing and reporting on, the condition of electrical installations in relevant buildings. As outlined in Section 21 of the Act when it was passed in 2022, this report will be provided within three years of the passage of the Act. The Regulator remains on track for completing this activity within the agreed timeframe.